


Streetlights

by NorthernProjection



Category: Free!
Genre: Free! - Freeform, Free! Eternal Summer, M/M, harurin - Freeform, ive never written any pairing thats not kawoshin im Sr, rin and haru get sentimental: The fan fic, rinharu - Freeform, sharkbait - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 10:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2065479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthernProjection/pseuds/NorthernProjection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin and Haru roam the streets and talk about all the new sights they've seen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Streetlights

**Author's Note:**

> Up at 3-4am like: Lmao gotta finish this Rinharu
> 
> its been a couple of episodes in and im so So So grateful for all the different character interaction but Rin and Haru have not been communicating enough so this is my way of expressing my needs

   Haru’s world was void of sound as he gracefully glided himself under the water. Shutting his eyes and mind off he let the water carry him. He absorbed himself in the feeling of the water dragging his skin smoothly. He was truly free again, and nothing could feel better.

   His routine pool visits were able to become much frequent once spring hit. He took time when he was alone to visit on his own, rather than keeping himself locked up at home in the bathtub, or letting himself get restricted to simply practices, he was finally able to come at times when the sun was just over the horizon and everything was settling down to swim free.

   The time he gets to himself to truly feel the water was tranquil, and he appreciated every minute of the silence. The sunset orange glistened atop the blue water, giving a dark shine of light, a beautiful work of complimentary colors mixing and creating an almost otherworldly sight in the shadows of the pool and the reflection of the water.

   He allowed himself to come slowly back up to take a small quiet breath of air, and enjoying the feel of the breeze he decided to let himself float above the water.

   He opened his eyes slowly and saw the bronze of the sky above him, the sun just barely blinding his vision, if not covered by the mass of clouds.

   He suddenly heard a quiet laugh, so subtle he was lucky the water in his ears didn’t tune it out completely. At the sound he sat up calmly in the pool, his head now above the water to see who was there.

   The laugh was from Rin, who was bent over sitting on the tip of his toes with his arms crossed on his knees, with a calm but amused look on his face.

   “You noticed I was here Haru? I was afraid it’d hit dark before you came to.”

   “How long have you been there?” Haru glared at him blankly and replied. Realizing soon too late should have asked “why” he was here.

   “Not long,” Rin grunted leaning over closer as Haru swam closer to edge of the pool to communicate at a good range, “I figured I’d catch you here and decided to visit.”

   “Why,” Haru finally asked bluntly.

   Rin gave an angry look and replied irritably,

   “What does that matter? I can’t visit occasionally? It’s not like I see you often.”

   “No reason, it’s just weird.”

   Rin flinched at the comment,

   “It’s not weird! You’re always hanging around your team and I’m always with mine, I never seem to catch you nowadays.”

   Haru blinked in response contemplating his reasoning, and had to agree, ever since Rin became captain of his team, he had very little time to worry about much else, likewise with Haru, who’s team was still focused on getting new members, it was hard to find time to meet each other as friends normally during the school year.

  “I guess you’re right.” Haru replied flatly, throwing his arms crossed over on the edge of the pool he continued casually, “speaking of, how is your team?”

   Haru realized he’d never asked about Rin’s work with his team, it was a good chance to catch up.

   Rin’s eyes lit up slightly as he opened his mouth to start talking,

  “Aha! It’s been so great! Sousuke’s great as ever, the guy hasn’t let me down yet, the Mikoshiba kid is a handful but his potential is incredible, and Nitori is doing his best to improve, and at this rate I think we’ll all be able to make it to nationals together, oh and some of the new recruits have been amazing even though some of them have a bit of an attitude…”

  Rin started to go on and on as he talked proudly about his inherited team, at first, Haru had been afraid of Rin’s ability to be a leader of his team, not because he didn’t think he was capable, but Rin had a tendency to overpressure himself and take a lot more than he could handle at once. Haru had been afraid the responsibility of a captain would drain him and send him over. But while Haru watched as Rin talked about his team, a light sparked in his eyes, an excitement and determination that were all too familiar to Haru.

  “I like that.” Haru said, speaking his complex thoughts out loud simply.

  “Eh?” Rin replied, confused as he had also been interrupted.

  “I like it, I’m glad you’re team is doing well, you all deserve it.” He responded flatly, he meant what he said but he obviously hadn’t spoken all of his thoughts out loud.

   Haru lifted himself from the pool, Rin stood and took a step back as Haru shook the water from his hair. Small droplets hitting Rin slightly caused him to give an irritated groan. But he quickly got over it, laughed and continued,

  “Yeah, it’s been pretty good.”

   Haru walked away, grabbed a towel and began drying himself off. Rin was unsure how to keep the conversation going and unconsciously watched Haru while he thought of something else to say.

  “What is it?” Haru muttered, noticing he was being stared at, and Rin jumped realizing what he had been doing,

   “Ah um!” Rin tumbled over his words, he didn’t know what he wanted, he came to just see Haru, he didn’t expect the interaction to be so short, otherwise he would have just said ‘bye’ and left, but it felt wrong to leave so abruptly, and he had to think of an excuse for watching the guy unintentionally, “I was just thinking…do you wanna go somewhere?”

  Haru turned around and replied in the same usual flat tone, “Go where?”

  Rin flinched again, “A-Anywhere, it’s the weekend so…” Rin looked down, “I don’t have anywhere to be right now and we haven’t talked in awhile so…” Rin looked up, obviously avoiding direct eye contact, “anywhere…would be fine.”

  Haru huffed quietly, turned back around and started putting on his clothes, it took him a minute but he finally replied, “Sure.”

  Rin got a little stiff, that ‘sure’ sounded like he didn’t really want to, but remembering how Haru was usually, he got over it and gave an awkward but relieved smile,

“That’s good.”

  Haru took longer putting his clothes back on compared to how fast he removed them, and quietly Rin kept his gaze strictly averted to the ground until he finally saw footsteps in his line of vision as Haru walked next to him.

  He looked up to see Haru looking right at him, their eyes finally meeting, he was close enough that the ends of his hair brushed against Haru’s, and Rin could see the beautiful ocean blue of his eyes stare at him blankly.

  “Let’s go.” Haru muttered, before immediately turning around to walk ahead.

   Rin was slightly stunned for a minute before snapping back to reality.

  “H-Hey wait up!” Rin stuttered irritably whipping around to catch up to him.

* * *

 

 

  Haru walked with his arms straight at his side while Rin walked with them crossed but relaxed above his head.

  It was getting darker outside, the sky still showed a hint of orange, but shadows were beginning to fade on the sidewalk, cars were driving by with their headlights on, and street lights began switching on glaring with only a slight light.

  “Ah it feels nice out here, spring evenings are pretty relaxing aren’t they? I’m not surprised you came out swimming at this time of the day.”

  “Yeah, it is nice.” Haru replied.

   Rin was used to walking in silence with Haru, it still felt good, with all hustle and bustle of his team, everyone always seemed energetic and full of energy, it was a good feeling, but he never really had a chance to relax. Momo constantly harassed him, Nitori complained when Momo harassed _him,_ Sousuke was relatively quiet, and his company was nice, but being in the same dorm as him constantly after practice only left them both tired, and when they talked it was always about the team and practice in some fashion. It was good to get away from it every once and awhile.

  Come to think of it, Rin realized Haru never really talks much about what’s happening in his _own_ team. It was weird almost. Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei all came to mind as a packaged deal, and you could easily guess they were a team, but you could never guess if they ever had struggles, or how hard the worked, or how much they improved, or anything, it wasn’t made obvious. The Iwatobi Swim Team was very ambiguous, a team of four skilled swimmers, enough skill to get some sort of recognition but not with enough skill to get much of a reputation to say the least.

  “Say, Haru, how are things in your team?” Rin figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

  “Makoto, Nagisa and Rei are all fine.” Haru replied.

  “No I mean,” he paused to recollect his thoughts, “how are things in the _team,_ how is Rei getting along? Is Nagisa quick as ever? Is Makoto leading the team on alright?”

   When Haru didn’t reply right away Rin continued, “And what about you? Are you excited for the coming relays? Are you keeping yourself warmed up? What kind of chance do you think you all have? You know, the basic stuff.”

  Haru closed his eyes, “You ask a lot of questions.”

  “Oi, Im only curious.”

  After a period of silence, and the silhouettes of a couple of cars moved by, Haru opens his mouth to reply,

  “We had a little problem with Rei and Nagisa, but we sorted it out. They’re both more determined than ever, Makoto is doing great, he’s still a little weird, but the team couldn’t have a better captain right now.”

  Haru smiled and continued,

  “Nagisa has been determined to help the team from the beginning, he’s doing everything he can to help find more members along with Makoto’s and Rei’s help. They’re all doing well, especially Rei, since you helped him.”

  Rin clicked his teeth, “So you found out about that?”

  “Yeah,” Haru replied flatly, but still with a hint of gratefulness in his voice, “he really is working hard, they all are.”

   Haru looked up slightly, “I think…we have a good chance.”

   Haru closed his eyes and looked back down quietly muttering “Yeah”

   Rin glanced at Haru from the corner of his eyes.

  “You’ve changed a lot.” He muttered.

  “Hm?”

  “I mean,” Rin brought his hands down and stuffed them in his jacket pocket with an amused huff, “from when we were kids, you’ve changed a lot, its nice to see your face light up when you talk about your team,” Rin gave a mischievous smile, “you would have never been this proud and excited a couple of years ago.”

  Haru immediately turned his head away irritably and whispered, “whatever” under his breath.

  At his reaction Rin just laughed and they continued walking forward.

 

* * *

 

 

  The sky was dark now, the only thing lighting their path were the streetlights, which now glowed brightly reviving the shadows on the sidewalks. Cars drove by less frequently but the ones that did sped right by, shining an almost blinding light in its path.

  “Hm, It’s getting dark,” Rin muttered.

  “That’s because you made plans to go somewhere without any idea where to go.” Haru replied bluntly.

  “Don’t blame me!” Rin whipped his head around angrily, “it was getting late anyways, you would have still been lazing around in the water had it not been for me.”

  “You make that sound like that would have been a bad thing.”

  “IT WOULD HAVE.” Rin hissed, “I love the pool just as much as you do – okay probably not as much but close – but the point is you can’t be in water for hours on end especially past dark outside, its gets cold and you could make yourself sick and then what? To be honest you’re lucky I happened to show up, it’d be morning and you’d still be wading around …"

  While Rin was nagging, Haru thought about what he had said earlier, had Haru changed? He hadn’t noticed, but he realized, that soon with the tranquil feeling of swimming, he got a similar and warmer feeling when swimming with his friends, when swimming in a relay with his friends. He learned how truly important being able to swim with people he cared about when he got to swim with Rin again, to have seen everyone’s smiles when they raced, to see Rin’s fire come back, after finally getting to do what he really wished. He never thought about it, but they have all grown up and changed.

  Haru realized how empty everything would be now if he ever lost his friends, how empty things had felt before him and Rin had been able finally patch everything up, how easily swimming had simultaneously hurt and relieved him, and now, he only felt joy from it. True joy and peace. Relay or free he was happy as long as he was in the water, and he was even happier when he was in the water with his friends. It took him admitting he wanted to swim with Rin to realize this. He really had changed.

  “I could say the same about you.” Haru muttered to himself quietly.

  “Huh?” Rin replied louder, confused and slightly irritated as he was again interrupted, by the silent muttering, “what are you going on about?”

  “What you said earlier, about me changing, I could say the same about you.”

  Rin relaxed and his reply was calm

  “Is that so?” he grunted.

  “Yeah,” Haru paused for a minute, “you’re a lot stronger than you used to be, and you’ve come really far, I’m really happy for you."

   Haru looked at Rin from the corner of his eyes, but his expression changed and his eyes widened slightly we he saw him.

   Rin was looking down and blushing. His shoulders were perked up and his hands shifted awkwardly in his pockets.

   Rin allowed Haru to fluster him so easily with just the smallest of comments, even when it wasn’t intended.

  “I-idiot saying things like that all of a sudden,” he turned his head away, “you’re the one who helped me want to get stronger, so give yourself some credit for once.”

  Haru only blinked.

  “Oh?”

  “Don’t just say ‘oh’!” Rin hissed again , “I was supposed to be the one who was going to show you a sight you’ve never seen before, remember?” Rin relaxed his shoulders a bit and continued, “In the end you were the one who showed me more than I ever could have seen, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now if it weren’t for you all.”

  Haru kept his eyes on Rin who pointedly kept his gaze away from him

  “I’m grateful.” He muttered finally.

  Haru’s gaze relaxed, Rin definitely had grown up just as Haru had.

  “You did it,” Haru stated confidently, “you did show me that sight, I get to have fun swimming with my friends now, and you helped show me how important that is,” he let a smile show across his face, “I’m grateful too, thank you.”

  Rin finally let his gaze meet Haru’s, shocked at the sudden honesty that was almost out of character for him. The two had already recognized this much about each other, they had already understood it, but they never spoke it, at least not like this. They were alone, the environment was quiet, and they had finally spoken to each other calmly without the feeling of everything potentially crashing around them. It wasn’t as if a weight was still in either of their hearts, but something was lifted slightly off their shoulders, they had both just wanted to talk like this again.

  Rin let a smirk come across his face, “I guess in the end we both showed each other something, eh?”

  Haru smiled back in reply, “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Their pace walking was slow but they continued forward.

  “Why’d you say that all of a sudden huh, Haru? Pretty unusual of you to get emotional all of a sudden.”

  “I asked one question,” Haru stated, “you’re the one who got emotional. That’s the only thing that hasn’t changed.”

  “Shut up!” Rin growled.

* * *

 

 

  “I’m going home.” Haru stated randomly in the silence.

  “Ah what?” Rin responded turning his head to look at Haru casually, “tired of walking already? You haven’t been working out at all.”

  “It’s late,” Haru replied unfazed by Rin’s insult, “besides it’s not like you have any idea where we’re going.”

  “It’s true,” Rin sighed with a slight irritated whine, “Sorry for keeping you out this late.”

  Rin stopped to turn around and removed one hand from his pocket to wave away, “It was nice talking to you Haru, see you again sometime,”

  But before Rin could walk to leave, Haru grabbing his wrist lightly stopped him.

  “Eh? Haru what is it what are you doing?”

  Rin looked down on him, Haru’s face looked the same as usual, but his eyes glowed in the darkness as he looked at Rin.

  “You said ‘we can go anywhere’” Haru replied, “it’s dark out, you can’t walk home alone, so you can stay at my place.”

  Rin gasped, slightly surprised. He already knew he was welcome at Haru’s home, anyone was, people typically barged in anyways, but Haru rarely invited people on his own accord, especially since it was unnecessary considering how Rin usually jogs in this kind of darkness all the time.

  But he wasn’t prepared to argue or complain; in fact he felt his stomach slightly flutter when Haru asked, and that’s what made his decision for him.

  “If you say so.” Rin smiled goofily with a laugh.

  Haru saw that glint in Rin’s eyes again, and he kept his gaze, he would never admit how happy it made him to see that familiar glint. The same glint that drove Haru, the same will in that look that pushed Haru to reach his potential.

  It was strange.

  For Rin, just being around Haru allowed him to bring out a side to him he would never present to anyone else now. The side of him that he almost lost when his father died, the side of him that he almost lost when he quit swimming, and the side of him that he almost lost while he fought to truly find himself again.

  Rin leaned forward with his eyes closed, a smile on his face, and let his forehead nuzzle into Haru’s hair teasingly.

  “If you were that insistent on making sure I didn’t go home in the dark you should have said something earlier.” Rin laughed.

  “Whatever,” Haru muttered.

  Haru let his hands slip from Rin’s wrist right past his palm and through his fingers, threatening to be grabbed and held, but they passed right through. And while it took Haru a minute to leave from the strangely comfortable position of Rin’s face touching his hair, but he moved his head back and looked at Rin in the eyes, which opened on their own at the feeling of the weight under him leaving.

  “Let’s go.” He stated bluntly again, turning to go.

  “Alright!” Rin snickered putting his hands behind his head again.

  Silence went between them again, but Rin, strangely with a sudden new air of energy began talking again.

  “You know,” he started, “walking the streets at night, alone, people could get the wrong idea,” Rin closed his eyes and a small giggle came from him, “but you know, it’s not all that bad, it feels good, taking me home and everything, almost like a date!” he teased.

  “What kind of date is this.” Haru replied irritated.

  “A pretty damn well romantic one if you ask me, can’t be too picky nowadays” Rin continued to tease looking at Haru, “right?”

  Haru felt that he should do what he usually does, turn around, don’t look at him, he’s being ridiculous again, ignore him. 

  But Haru looked right back at him.

  “Yeah, sure.” Haru replied, hoping the sarcasm would be heard in his voice, but instead it came out somewhat sincere.

  Rin only turned back around and laughed as they made their way down the steep hill of the street, their bodies disappearing behind the hills with their shadows shrinking against it, as they made their way to Haru’s home, which was evidently already right around the next corner.

  


End file.
